News from 5/2011

Happy 7" release day to BLOUSE! Get your hands on their new single “Shadow” here

BLOUSE is based out of a 6,000 square-foot warehouse in North Portland. The project started in the summer of 2010, after Los Angeles native Charlie Hilton met Patrick Adams in art school. They made a few home recordings and soon began spending nights at the warehouse recording with Jacob Portrait (Producer of Mint Chicks, Dandy Warhols, Starfucker). Having played music since their teens, the three found that there was something inexplicable in their coming together. After posting two demo tracks to Bandcamp’s website, the group was picked up by Captured Tracks out of Brooklyn, NY. A 7" single of Into Black was released at the end of March ’11 by Captured Tracks and we, Sub Pop Records are releasing the second single for this band entitled “Shadow” which is out today, May 31st.

Sub Pop is proud to be releasing the ever so charming second single from BlouseShadow b/w Nights and Days on May 31st. As Pitchfork noted today, we’re offering the stream of “Shadow” now so you can have a listen before you head on over here and pre-order your copy of the single.

Chad VanGaalen is a wildly talented artist, illustrator and animator from Calgary. And on May 17th, we at Sub Pop Records have the very great privilege of releasing Chad’s new full-length record, Diaper Island, on CD (round, small-ish), LP (also round, bigger) and digitally (invisible). With this new album, Chad has distilled his approach, producing his most sonically cohesive album to date, and the closest thing he has done to a rock album. As with all of his albums, Chad is single-handedly responsible for all of the artistic efforts that went into Diaper Island—from album art to music videos and everything in between. The new video Chad made for the song “Peace on the Rise” (click title to watch) is ample supporting evidence for the “wildly talented” claim above. And, because he is something of an overachiever, Chad drew a series of items into the video for you to find and, having found them all, enter yourself for the chance to win a totally awesome Chad VanGaalen prize pack which will include a copy of Diaper Island on both CD and limited edition green vinyl (only 300 pressed) as well as a shirt hand drawn by Chad himself.

Click here to watch the “Peace on the Rise” video AND enter Chad’s contest.

Although it borders upon cruel to even mention this since they are now ALLGONE, we gave the first 200 people to pre-order Diaper Island from subpop.com a free 5″ × 6.5″, limited-edition, hand-numbered art print. This print features art from Diaper Island and Chad has drawn something unique on each of these. You can see what these look like here. That was for the first 200 people to order this record–those are now gone. But! Everyone who orders Diaper Island on CD or LP (and, remember, the LP will come with a coupon for a free, high-quality mp3 download of the album) will receive free Chad VanGaalen Diaper Island stickers and instant access to a stream of the album in its entirety, providing access to hear the record in the time betwixt ordering and receiving.

As we shared a few weeks ago, newly signed Sub Pop band Washed Out has a new record entitled Within and Without which will be out on July 12th. You can now listen to the first sampling of music off said release entitled “Eyes Be Closed” by inserting your email address in the widget above. Greene recorded Within and Without with Ben Allen, who, among a great many other things, co-produced Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion, Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere and Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest.

The band has some upcoming shows including a performance at this years Sasquatch Music Festival. Click here

Do you like summer? What about summer jams? What are your feelings on the unhurried, meandering nature of a coastal highway? If you have a positive emotional response to any of these questions, we at Sub Pop Records have got an album we would like to sell to you! It’s called The Errant Charm, and it comes to us from San Francisco’s Vetiver. Recorded and produced by Thom Monahan and bandleader Andy Cabic, The Errant Charm features some of Vetiver’s most unabashed pop songs to date, with songs like the hazy, layered and sunlight-dappled “Hard to Break,” and the driving, propulsive “Wonder Why.” This new and remarkable Vetiver album comes out on June 14th, very close indeed to the official arrival of summer, which, on the chance that you did not discern as much from the introductory ramblings above, this record will go great with. If you’re one of the first 350 people to pre-order The Errant Charm by June 14th on CD or LP (with digital download code), you’ll receive, for free, a limited-edition art/photo scrapbook featuring artwork and photography related to the record by Nathanial Russell and Alissa Anderson, respectively. We’ll also give you some free Vetiver and/or Sub Pop stickers and immediate access to an audio stream of The Errant Charm so you don’t have to wait until you receive your order to hear the album. All of this, for you, from us.